


Beyond The Grave

by Fluxx



Series: The Spook Cruise, 2017 [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Detectives, Ghost Alec Lightwood, M/M, Magnus Bane's Omamori Charm, Malec, Malec solving a murder mystery, Spirit Guides
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-11 00:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12311466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluxx/pseuds/Fluxx
Summary: Magnus Bane has a secret: still to this day, he carries his dearly-departed Alec with him in a very special omamori charm. Through it, he's able to summon Alec's ghost to this world, but doing so comes at the cost of consuming Alec's energy. In the wake of disturbing string of murders, Luke implores Magnus to have Alec lend a hand, a favor Magnus obliges, but which turns out to be far more costly than he'd ever imagined.Prompt response for The Spook Cruise, 2017:Malec + Spirit Medium!Magnus and Ghost!Alec.Submit a prompt for The Spook Cruise!





	Beyond The Grave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unbreakable_Vow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unbreakable_Vow/gifts).



Magnus knelt beside the body with a sigh. Red and blue lights flashed against the smooth, grey-white stones forming the river’s bank.

“Washed up this morning,” a deep voice muttered behind him. The man stepped closer, hands shoved into the pockets of his dark, denim jeans. “Same MO as the others… male, mid-teens, two puncture wounds to the right jugular…”

Magnus stood and regarded Luke with a weary expression. “Still no leads?”

Luke shrugged. “We’ve tried cross-referencing their backgrounds, but it’s not turning up anything promising, and the river’s taken care of any kind of physical traces from our killer.” He hesitated, daring to eye Magnus in desperate hope. “…Think your friend can help?”

His hand was already reaching into his jacket’s inside pocket, pulling out the small, silken omamori charm. His eyes fell to the delicate thing, his fingertips gliding over its smooth surface and feeling the arrowhead hidden within. “This isn’t what he’s meant for,” Magnus muttered.

Luke shrugged, then turned around to wander back towards his car. “I’d say ‘paying your rent’ falls well within the realm of ‘protecting you.’ Call me if you find anything.”

Magnus glared after the detective, and didn’t stop until the man had driven off. All around him, the rest of the evidence team were fast at work bagging and tagging every last thing they could find, like a swarm of frantic worker ants. Glancing back down to the charm in his hand, he sighed, then brought it to his lips to press a soft kiss to its cool threads.  _I’m sorry, Alexander._

As he lowered the charm, he tilted his head back and looked to the sky. A white fog consumed his eyes, standing out starkly against his dark complexion. He could feel a kind of wind swirl around him, one that left the bank’s sparse weeds undisturbed but made his stomach churn. It continued to build and build, like a tornado forming around Magnus, until all at once it suddenly collapsed upon him, causing him to clutch his gut and keel over. The surrounding officers spared him a brief glance, but soon continued on with their work - by now, they were used to Magnus and his bizarre antics, though none of them really understood why their captain kept bringing him around.

Slowly, the nausea settled. Magnus had long since gotten used to this part, and learned how to keep his insides on the inside. As his eyes peeled open, familiarly wild tufts of messy brown hair greeted him, their accompanying fair skin and black attire focusing into view a moment later. An apologetic smile drew across his lips as he righted himself, then hesitantly re-approached the deceased boy.

“What happened to pool night?” Alec sighed, his voice echoing gently through Magnus’s ears. “I preferred those dates. We used to get so competitive!”

It brought a gentle chill to his skin, and a distant memory surfacing to the forefront of his mind. “Can’t very well have you possessing pool sticks, can we?” Magnus drew to a stop beside Alec, clutching the omamori in a closed palm and hesitantly reaching towards him with the other. His fingertips never quite closed the difference, however, chickening out at the last moment to slip within his pocket. “People would stare.”

Alec’s face turned to grin up at him, eyes caught in a translucent gleam. “They’d have every reason to.”

“Now, now,” Magnus chuckled lowly, walking around the body until he and Alec faced each other. “Let’s save that kind of talk for our own enjoyment, hm?”

“Not like they can hear me anyway,” Alec remarked with a pointed glance to the surrounding officers. He stood up so he and Magnus were now face to face, gazing at Magnus like he wanted to say something more about it. Nonetheless, he moved along, eyes quickly falling to indicate the boy between them. “Cops having trouble again?”

Magnus nodded. “I really do hate to ask this of you, but they’re just children. We’re worried there could be more.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Alec lightly laughed, a ghastly hand raising and drifting towards Magnus’s face. They couldn’t quite touch, but Magnus could feel the chill against his cheek, and smiled at knowing the feeling would linger long after Alec’s hand left its side. Alec nodded to Magnus’s closed hand, and more specifically the charm it held. “It’s what I’m here for.”

With a melancholic chuckle, Magnus glanced back down at the boy. “I’m lucky you take such a liberal definition of it.”

“I’m lucky I get to,” Alec countered with a grin. He turned to survey the river, slowly taking in every inch as far as the eye could see. The wind was crisp and cool, the water splashed periodically against the rocks, and a mixture of saltwater and fresh hot dogs mingled in the air to contentious effect. All in all, it was an unremarkable experience, but it still brought a kind of wistful longing to Alec’s eyes, one Magnus wished he could banish forever.

Suddenly, Alec turned, looking back toward the road with a frown. “I think I’ve got something,” he murmured, then began walking off.

Surprised but no less eager, Magnus quickly excused himself from the crime scene and followed after Alec. “Alexander, wait!” he hissed through his teeth, trying not to draw too much attention - the officers thought him plenty mad enough  _without_  hearing him talk “to himself.”

“Sorry,” Alec replied, halting abruptly to let Magnus catch up. He gave a sheepish shrug of his shoulders. “I forget how much faster I can travel since I don’t need to breathe.”

Magnus offered a sympathetic half-smile. “Can’t get too far away anyway,” he pointed out, lifting his closed hand. “In any case, you found something?”

Alec nodded, then turned and pointed along the road. “Tracks. Well, none that you can see… Little traces of energy. I think the boy’s spirit must have left them.”

The thought made Magnus’s brough furrow in intense sympathy. “He remained with his body until it washed ashore?”

“Must not have died until after he got dumped,” Alec murmured, equally disturbed by the conclusion.

“Well… lead the way, I guess,” Magnus replied with a gesture down the road. When Alec responded with little more than a concerned look, he urged, “I don’t want to call Luke in until I’m certain we’ve found something he can work with. Any sooner than that and he might…” He cringed, glancing Alec over. “…try and get more mileage out of you.”

“Would it make  _you_  feel better if he did?” Alec asked with an imploring look.

Magnus didn’t answer, only turned to stare down the road. “The boy might be seeking out his killer.”

Alec nodded, smiled, then turned to continue following the tracks, slower this time, and waving for Magnus to follow. “Alright, then. They lead this way.”

Their walk through the streets was nice, all things considering. The sky was bleak, and a combination of waste and fish fouled the air, and they were hoping to track down a serial killer, but they were in each other’s company, something that had grown increasingly rare over the years. Neither of them were pleased with the current situation, but it was a conversation not worth having - they’d already exhausted it time and time again, and it never really got them anywhere.

_I wish you would summon me more often._

_I don’t want to waste your energy._

_Is it really a waste if we’re spending time together?_

_We don’t know how much is left._

_That’s what makes it worthwhile, isn’t it?_

_I’m not ready to lose you._

The traces of the boy’s spirit led them to some kind of construction site. Luckily, it was the weekend, so the place was empty. Pulling a pin from his sleeve, Magnus made quick work of picking the fence’s padlock, Alec watching on with a smirk. “You’ve kept up with the street magic?”

Magnus chuckled, pulling open the gate and holding it open as though it had ever impeded Alec in the first place. “Have to pay the bills  _some_  how, and I’m not much good at anything else.”

“Sure you are,” Alec insisted, wandering through and eyeing the giant, steel fortress before them. “Cooking, for instance. Or…” Magnus’s brow rose, and Alec turned to smile at him. “…okay, maybe just cooking.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

They continued deeper into the site, their pace slowing as Alec started struggling to keep track of the trail. “It’s starting to get sparse, just faint glimmers here and there…”

Magnus scoured their surroundings as best he could despite the darkness, pulling his cell out from his pants’ pocket. “We must be getting close. I’ll have Luke’s number ready, just in—”

“Who you talkin’ to, Honey?”

Magnus whirled, and his eyes shot wide when he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. His hands shot up in defense, dropping his phone - and the omamori - to the ground with a loud clatter. He stumbled back a few paces to put some distance between himself and certain death. “D-Don’t shoot!”

“Magnus!!!” Alec cried, but he was helpless, restricted by his incorporeal state.

He went wholly unnoticed by the woman, her painted lips curling into a wicked smile beneath long waves of thick, dark hair. “I asked you a question, Honey,” she purred, stalking closer to Magnus. Her thumb cocked the gun, and she rose it, lining it up with the center of Magnus’s head. “Who you talkin’ to?”

Magnus swallowed, continuing to back up, and soon found himself pressed against a cold, cement wall. “N-No one!” he stammered. “Myself! I was just… Just thinking out loud!”

“Oh?” the woman snickered, tilting her head. A distinct sadism twinkled in her dark eyes, and she licked her lips as she took a brief stroll down memory lane. “About what? Those boys?” To Magnus’s great relief, she stopped walking towards him, apparently satisfied with the few feet still separating them.

His lips pursed, his brow hardening into a furious glare. “So it was you, then? Why?!”

She practically yawned in her disinterest. “Boredom, mostly. I like watching those cops scurry around like rats.” She chuckled, eyes falling to the phone on the ground, and the charm laying beside it. “I kept them going for quite a while, didn’t I? How long, do you think, before they started carrying garlic on them?”

Alec clenched his fists and grit his teeth, eyes twisted with frustration. “Magnus… Magnus, I’m so sorry. I endangered you. Please, just… We’ll get you out of this, I promise!”

That was growing increasingly more difficult to believe. “What now?” Magnus muttered, struggling to hide the way his voice had hollowed out in fear. “What are you going to do with me?”

“I think that part’s rather obvious,” she muttered. “The only question is whether or not you’re going to tell me how you found me.”

Alec’s desperation reached a peak. “Magnus… Magnus… !”

Magnus’s eyes moistened with guilt, gazing passed the woman and regarding Alec with distant longing. Still, his lips remained shut tight, betraying nothing. If this woman found out about Alec, and found a way to use Alec through him…

She sighed. “Fine. Guess the world will never know.”

She pulled the trigger. A loud bang resounded through the site. Magnus’s eyes widened, fully expecting to feel his head pierced through. Instead, Alec now stood between them, all prior translucency gone from his form.

The woman’s jaw dropped in astonishment. “W-What?!”

Magnus took advantage of her confusion, seizing the minuscule window of opportunity to reach around Alec and snatch the gun from her stunned hand. Immediately, her face twisted into an expression of pure rage, but she would never get a chance to declare it to the world.

A second bang rang out. Magnus’s chest rose and fell in rapid succession, staring as the woman collapsed to the ground, cold and lifeless. Another thud betrayed another collapse, bringing Magnus back to the here-and-now.

“Alexander!” he yelled, whirling and descending upon Alec in a panic. He looked so real, so  _alive_ , that he felt no hesitation pulling Alec into his lap, though his mind insisted that should have been impossible. Nonetheless, here Alec lay, Magnus’s arms wrapped tightly about his shoulders and their faces closer than they’d been in a long, long time.

Alec smiled up at him, a shaking hand raising to hesitantly draw aside strands of Magnus’s erratic hair. “You’re alright,” he sighed with relief.

Magnus’s eyes ranged all over Alec’s body, still wide with stunned confusion. “Alexander… How? What did… ?”

Alec’s head strained to glance in the direction of the omamori charm. “I guess… with enough energy…”

It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Magnus to draw the conclusion. Somehow, Alec had summoned enough strength to manifest fully, enabling him to take the woman’s bullet in Magnus’s stead. Yet, that also meant…

Tears began to form at the corners of Magnus’s eyes. “How much… is left… ?”

Alec winced, and guilt gripped Magnus’s heart, knowing the man in his arms could probably feel the bullet in his chest. “Not much,” he admitted. “I’ll need to rest. After that…” His expression wavered, but he put on an efforted smile. “…I can probably visit you… one more time…”

Magnus swallowed and nodded. His hand moved to Alec’s face, cupping his cheek like he hadn’t done since his love had died. “Save your strength,” he urged. Though, he realized such a thing wouldn’t make much difference - not  _enough_ , anyway.

Through it all, Alec maintained his smile. “Bring me back… for something nice… okay?” He paused in brief thought, then suggested, “Stroll through Central Park, just like we used to?”

Again, Magnus nodded. His eyes slipped shut, and he leaned down to press a kiss to Alec’s forehead. The feeling chilled his lips, but it was familiar and comforting in its own, strange way. “I promise,” he whispered as the feeling faded away.

Slowly, his eyes slid open once more. He caught the tail end of Alec’s face, just a moment before it faded completely. Quickly, he wiped his sleeve across his eyes, then turned to look to the omamori charm still laying on the ground. He sighed with equal parts relief and agony, seeing how it retained just a sliver of its former luster. Snatching it up, he pressed it to his lips, then slipped it into his pocket and set about calling Luke, a single thought continuing to echo in his mind all the while.

_I promise, Alexander._


End file.
